Editorial: Marking Constitution Day

Though it cannot rival the celebrations each July 4 that commemorate ratification of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Sept. 17 — the date that delegates adopted the U.S. Constitution in 1787 — deserves a place of similar prominence.

That document marked a turning point in the national experiment, replacing the dysfunctional Articles of Confederation and putting the country on a path toward a more representative and effective national system of government.

The commonwealth should be the first to tout a higher profile for such a celebration since Virginians were architects of the Constitution’s framework, central to its negotiated compromises and instrumental in its eventual ratification.

Outside the small community of Orange, nestled in the Virginia Piedmont, sits the plantation estate of Montpelier, the home of James Madison. It was there that Madison conducted his research and drafted his proposal for a federal charter organized around a strong central government.

Known as the Virginia Plan, Madison’s roadmap included three branches of federal government — executive, legislative and judicial — and a national legislature with two chambers of lawmakers whose representation would be based on state populations.

Madison’s proposal earned the support of other prominent figures in the Constitutional Convention, notably fellow Virginian George Washington and New York’s Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. But it was countered by a proposal from New Jersey’s William Paterson, who suggested a unicameral legislature with equal representation for each state.

Ultimately, conventional delegates endorsed a mix of the two plans — known as the Connecticut Compromise — that served as the cornerstone for our federal government. Considering the snail’s pace at which Congress now moves, it’s extraordinary that negotiations progressed from Madison’s Virginia Plan to an adopted Constitution in less than four months.

It was far from perfect, and agreements forged to ensure adoption — primarily its protection of slavery as an institution and its marginalization of the new nation’s enslaved population — were unnecessarily cruel and contradictory to the ideals espoused in the Declaration.

Nor did approval by the convention mark the end of the road for either the document or for Madison’s efforts. With the help of Hamilton and Jay, Madison — then only 36 years old — began the arduous work of winning ratification by the states.

The most difficult challenge was in New York, where voices of dissent were already flourishing, and where the three men would publish 85 essays extolling the virtues of the Constitution and the necessity of a stronger federal government. Known as the Federalist Papers, they remain an essential guide to understanding both the Constitution and the American system of government, even though Madison would contend that the text, not the Federalist essays, should speak for itself.

Arguably the most famous of these essays was No. 10, penned by Madison, which argued that a centralized federal government is best equipped to hold together the different, and sometimes oppositional, interests of the states and the value of representational democracy in protecting against a tyranny of the majority.

Though he believed the Constitution did not require amendment to protect individual liberty and personal freedom, Madison understood the most compelling points against the document voiced by its opponents could be resolved through a Bill of Rights. He would draft 12 amendments, 10 of which were ratified.

Madison would later serve as fourth president of the United States and is still considered the “father of the Constitution.” But his legacy is not only in a document that continues to serve this nation 235 years after its adoption, but also in how its underpinning philosophy and aspects of its design form the foundation for constitutional republics the world over.

That Virginia, and Virginians, played a central role in forging this remarkable and still evolving system of government should be a point of commonwealth pride. Though Sept. 17 may not feature the fanfare of our annual Independence Day gatherings, it is a consequential day on the American calendar and should be celebrated as such.